Title – Don’t let the problems snowball if your ski holiday hits the skidsSource – The Independent
Date – 14th January 2009
With 1 in 4 Britons who take a winter sports holiday doing so without travel insurance, many people are going to have very expensive travel stories to tell.
The fundamentals of travel insurance are very similar whether you are going skiing, diving, taking a week’s holiday or going on a volunteering gap year; make sure you are covered for ALL the activities and countries you travel to and for the whole duration of your trip.
Repatriation after an accident, be that a ski accident as mentioned in this article or following a moped crash in Sri Lanka, can be very expensive. The example given in this article of £35,000 in repatriation and emergency rescue cost is no exaggeration. Never assume that the status quo at home, applies abroad.
We are used to the excellent social welfare system we have in the UK, when you get ill the NHS looks after you; you don’t call an ambulance thinking about the cost and if you can afford it. This is simply not the case in most countries; in some the ambulance crew will first ask for proof you can pay and then treat you.
There are many stories about those who failed to get any insurance suffering not just the anguish of illness, accident or financial loss while travelling, but we also hear regular stories of insurance policies that are barely worth the paper they are written on. You must do your research; with insurance the cheapest is certainly not necessarily the best.
The ‘small print’ is all important and before you buy your insurance check that the activities, duration and destinations of your intended travel are suitably covered. For example if you are intending to go diving on your trip; are you required to take out additional cover, if not how many days diving will the policy cover and is the depth you can dive to limited? Does an annual travel insurance policy actually cover a whole year’s travel? Often annual multi trip policies allow a limited duration for each trip through the year.
There are a lot of questions and you need to get the answers before you leave. Remember limits on insurance policies are usually there for a good reason; for example the insurance company knows that the risks involved in off-piste skiing are much greater than with on-piste skiing, hence why they will not insure it or will charge a premium. When you are considering risks involved in your trip it is worth noting not just what you are insured for, but if the additional risks that your insurance company will not insure are worth taking… those are the risks you should avoid.
At
Beyond The Blue (Safe Gap Year) our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness Workshop (GYITSA) considers issues of Travel Insurance and what questions you should ask when you a sourcing insurance and the limits within which you should stay to Travel Safely.Date – 14th January 2009
With 1 in 4 Britons who take a winter sports holiday doing so without travel insurance, many people are going to have very expensive travel stories to tell.
The fundamentals of travel insurance are very similar whether you are going skiing, diving, taking a week’s holiday or going on a volunteering gap year; make sure you are covered for ALL the activities and countries you travel to and for the whole duration of your trip.
Repatriation after an accident, be that a ski accident as mentioned in this article or following a moped crash in Sri Lanka, can be very expensive. The example given in this article of £35,000 in repatriation and emergency rescue cost is no exaggeration. Never assume that the status quo at home, applies abroad.
We are used to the excellent social welfare system we have in the UK, when you get ill the NHS looks after you; you don’t call an ambulance thinking about the cost and if you can afford it. This is simply not the case in most countries; in some the ambulance crew will first ask for proof you can pay and then treat you.
There are many stories about those who failed to get any insurance suffering not just the anguish of illness, accident or financial loss while travelling, but we also hear regular stories of insurance policies that are barely worth the paper they are written on. You must do your research; with insurance the cheapest is certainly not necessarily the best.
The ‘small print’ is all important and before you buy your insurance check that the activities, duration and destinations of your intended travel are suitably covered. For example if you are intending to go diving on your trip; are you required to take out additional cover, if not how many days diving will the policy cover and is the depth you can dive to limited? Does an annual travel insurance policy actually cover a whole year’s travel? Often annual multi trip policies allow a limited duration for each trip through the year.
There are a lot of questions and you need to get the answers before you leave. Remember limits on insurance policies are usually there for a good reason; for example the insurance company knows that the risks involved in off-piste skiing are much greater than with on-piste skiing, hence why they will not insure it or will charge a premium. When you are considering risks involved in your trip it is worth noting not just what you are insured for, but if the additional risks that your insurance company will not insure are worth taking… those are the risks you should avoid.
At
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